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The Academic Program

Based in the humanities, arts and sciences, Smith’s broad liberal-arts curriculum will prepare you for leadership in a dynamic world. You can put together the pieces of your Smith experience, both inside and outside the classroom, to suit your interests, support your goals and find your passions. Then, with Smith’s emphasis on hands-on learning, you will take what you’ve learned and see how it plays out in a real-world setting.

An Education as Unique as You Are

If you want academic challenge, you’ll find it here. That’s why students who look for a top-ranked college renowned for its vibrant intellectual and cultural community choose Smith. And that’s why Smith has built a reputation for empowering women like you to succeed in ways you never imagined—the unconventional as well as the traditional.

At Smith you’ll find that your intellectual passions and goals are taken seriously. Here your personal program of study allows you to build your confidence, hone your intellectual abilities and confirm your exceptional talents and leadership skills before you go out into the world.

Smith professors expect students to speak up in class, contribute original ideas, question assumptions and even challenge their views. The lively intellectual exchanges taking place in Smith classrooms (and around campus in student houses and study lounges) prove that great minds don’t necessarily think alike.

As a first-year student, you will complete at least one writing-intensive course, but there are no other required courses beyond those for your major. A faculty adviser will work with you to customize your educational plan according to your interests.

You will also be part of a larger, lively academic community: the Five College Consortium, which links Smith to four other colleges—Amherst, Hampshire and Mount Holyoke colleges and the University of Massachusetts. With 2,200 faculty members teaching 7,000 courses to 30,000 students, the five colleges together offer literally thousands of opportunities to make the most of your higher education.

A Smith education is about thinking for yourself instead of figuring out what a teacher wants you to say or echoing what your classmates believe. For every nine students, there’s a Smith professor to help you discover new information and reconsider theories and opinions you once took for granted.

The New Neilson

Smith is reimagining its historic Neilson Library as an innovative intellectual commons at the heart of the college campus—a building that will shape new ways of teaching, learning and conducting research for generations to come.